精美英文欣赏:现代美国大学

Modern American Universities

Before the 1850's, the United States had a number of small colleges,most of them dating from colonial days. They were small, church connected institutions whose primary concern was to shape the moral character of their students.

Throughout Europe, institutions of higher learning had developed, bearing the ancient nameof university. In Germany a different kind of university had developed. The German university was concerned primarily with creating and spreading knowledge, not morals.Between midcentury and the end of the 1800's, more than nine thousand young Americans, dissatisfied with their training at home, went to Germany for advanced study.Some of them returned to become presidents of venerable colleges -- Harvard, Yale, Columbia -- and transform them into modern universities. The new presidents broke all ties with the churches and brought in a new kind of faculty¹. Professors were hired for their knowledge of a subject, not because they were of the proper faith and had a strong arm for disciplining students. The new principle was that a university was to create knowledge as well as pass it on, and this called for a faculty composed of teacher-scholars.Drilling and learning by rote² were replaced by the German method of lecturing, in which the professor's own research was presented in class. Graduate training leading to the Ph.D., an ancient German degree signifying the highest level of advanced scholarly attainment,was introduced.With the establishment of the seminar system,graduate students learned to question, analyze³, and conduct their own research.

At the same time, the new university greatly expanded in size and course offerings, breaking completely out of the old, constricted⁴ curriculum of mathematics, classics, rhetoric⁵, and music. The president of Harvard pioneered the elective system, by which students were able to choose their own courses of study. The notion of major fields of study emerged. The new goal was to make the university relevant to the real pursuits of the world. Paying close heed⁶ to the practical needs of society, the new universities trained men and women to work at its tasks, with engineering students being the most characteristic of the new regime. Students were also trained as economists⁷, architects, agriculturalists, social welfare workers, and teachers.

现代美国大学

19 世纪 50 年代以前美国有一些小的学院，大多数成立于殖民时期。 它们是与教会挂钩的小机构，主要目的是培养学生的道德品行。

当时在欧洲各地，高等教育机构已经发展起来，用的是一个古老的名称--大学。 德国已经发展出一种不同类型的大学。 德国大学关心的主要是创造知识和传播知识，而不是道德教育。 从世纪中叶到世纪末，有9000 多名美国青年因不满国内所受的教育而赴德深造。 他们中的一些人回国后成为一些知名学府--哈佛、耶鲁、哥伦比亚的校长并且把这些学府转变成了现代意义的大学。 新校长们断绝了和教会的关系，聘请了新型的教职员，聘用教授根据的是他们在学科方面的知识，而不是正确的信仰和约束学生的强硬手段。新的原则是大学既要传播知识也要创造知识。 这就需要由学者型老师组成教工队伍。 靠死记硬背和做练习来学习的方法变为德国式的讲解方法。 德国式的讲解就是由教授讲授自己的研究课题。 通过研究生性质的学习可以获得表明最高学术造诣的古老的德国学位--博士学位。 随着讨论课制度的建立，研究生们学会了提问、分析以及开展他们自己的研究。

同时，新式大学学校规模和课程设置完全突破了过去那种只有数学、经典著作、美学和音乐的狭窄课程表。 哈佛大学的校长率先推出选课制度，这样学生们就能选择自己的专业。主修领域的概念也出现了。新的目标是使大学对实际社会更有用。 密切关注着社会上的实际需求，新的大学着意培养学生解决问题的能力。 工程系学生成为新式教育体制下最典型的学生。学生们还被培训成为经济学家、建筑师、农学家、社会工作人员以及教师。

1 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。

2 rote   

n.死记硬背，生搬硬套

参考例句：

• Learning by rote is discouraged in this school.这所学校不鼓励死记硬背的学习方式。
• He recited the poem by rote.他强记背诵了这首诗。

3 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。

4 constricted   

adj.抑制的，约束的

参考例句：

• Her throat constricted and she swallowed hard. 她喉咙发紧，使劲地咽了一下唾沫。
• The tight collar constricted his neck. 紧领子勒着他的脖子。

5 rhetoric   

n.修辞学，浮夸之言语

参考例句：

• Do you know something about rhetoric?你懂点修辞学吗？
• Behind all the rhetoric,his relations with the army are dangerously poised.在冠冕堂皇的言辞背后，他和军队的关系岌岌可危。

6 heed   

v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心

参考例句：

• You must take heed of what he has told.你要注意他所告诉的事。
• For the first time he had to pay heed to his appearance.这是他第一次非得注意自己的外表不可了。

7 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》